April 22nd, 2007
Facebook adds Twitter-like functionality
Facebook has added a number of enhancements to its 'status' functionality which include features which are strikingly similar to the micro-blogging service, Twitter.
According to the official blog, Facebook now:
- displays a user's friends' three most recent updates on the home page
- has a dedicated page to display all your friends' updates at once
- has an RSS feed aggregating all of a user's friends' updates
- offers the ability to subscribe to a friend's updates via SMS
- offers the ability for a user to update their status by sending an SMS to Facebook starting with the "@" character
In fact the only Twitter-like omission is the ability to update a user's status via an IM client — perhaps to encourage users to stay logged-in to Facebook.
I've privately speculated that Twitter would have made a pefect Facebook acquisition. But with the technology being fairly easily replicated, it probably makes more sense for the social networking site to roll its own. Which is exactly what they appear to have done.
Related post: Twitter, the ultimate conference 'backchannel'
Steve O'Hear is a London-based consultant, educator, and journalist, focussing on the Internet and all aspects of digital technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
